Abstract:

One of the important steps of planning is to assess the impacts of the project. While drawing up the plan, it is needed to assess the impacts of the plan and the alternatives properly. Under the Land Use and Building Act the plan has to be founded on sufficient surveys. However, the act doesn't define the criterion for the sufficiency of the surveys.

The goal of the thesis is to find out if there are any lacks in the impact assessment of the planning projects of business parks and how the assessment could be improved. The concentration is on traffic-related impacts. The impacts related to land use are dealt with the accessibility of services and workplaces.

According to the results of the research, the impacts of the plans studied are assessed inexactly. The factors affecting the impacts should be paid more attention. It's not sufficient that for example accessibility with public transport is assessed to be good just because there is a bus line running in the neighboring area. The details of public transport have to be found out. That is necessary so that the standard of service could be assessed properly.

Another result of the research shows the impacts related to land use are assessed in a too small area. The changes in the services should be estimated for the whole urban area. Besides, the assessment of theoretical purchasing power has too much importance. The impacts on shop network cannot be assessed with the specificity of individual stores.

The impact assessment of business parks can be improved also by making the basis of the project better. If the project is launched suddenly and in a hurry without any research done, there is not enough time for detailed surveys. The best basis would be that the county or neighbouring counties have a general plan for the land use in the urban area. That makes it possible to survey without a hurry in advance. After doing this when there is a need for a business park, the planning could be based on the surveys done earlier.Yksi kaavoitusprosessin tärkeistä osa-alueista on vaikutusten arviointi. Kaavaa laadittaessa tulee tarpeenmukaisesti selvittää suunnitelman ja tarkasteltavien vaihtoehtojen vaikutukset. Maankäyttö- ja rakennuslain mukaan kaavan tulee perustua riittäviin selvityksiin ja tutkimuksiin. Laissa ei kuitenkaan ole määritelty tarkkoja kriteerejä vaikutusten arvioinnin riittävyydelle.